1.7 million IRS grant records. 119,000 foundations. AI-powered matching to your mission.
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IRS filings through tax year 2025. The loaded set is Form 990-PF until a Form 990 Schedule I ingest is added. Last ingestion completed March 19, 2026.
119K+
Foundations
1.7M
Grant records
$49/mo
Instrumentl starts at $299/mo
The same IRS data that powers enterprise platforms — at a fraction of the cost.
Six-factor scoring matches your mission, programs, geography, and budget against every foundation in the IRS database.
Grant history, board members, giving trends, sector breakdown, and geographic focus.
New high-scoring matches delivered to your inbox. Never miss a funding opportunity.
Grant records on every foundation profile — recipient, purpose, amount, and year.
Track foundations from discovery through application. Notes, status, CSV export.
Published weights on public IRS data — see exactly why every foundation matched. No black box.
Built by a nonprofit executive director who wanted this workflow without a $300-a-month tool.
Layout preview of the signed-in product. These frames are not a customer account and do not show foundation names, grant amounts, or match scores.
Beacon is an AI-powered grant funder discovery tool for small nonprofits. It matches your organization against 119,000+ private foundations using IRS 990-PF data to find the funders most likely to support your mission.
Beacon costs $49 per month with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required. Instrumentl starts at $299 per month. Candid Premium is about $100 per month when billed annually ($1,199 per year).
Beacon is built on publicly available IRS Form 990-PF filings — the same public data behind enterprise platforms like Candid. Every foundation profile shows the filing years it covers, and match scores are recomputed as new filings are ingested.
Beacon scores every foundation against your organization using six factors: sector alignment (20%), program and purpose overlap (15%), geographic match (28%), grant size fit (15%), giving volume (12%), and giving trend (10%). Geography follows where the foundation sent grant dollars in its last three filing years. About 15% or more of those dollars in your state scores high; a token grant scores low. The same share in a neighboring state scores lower, and neighbor credit tops out well below an in-state funder. A funder that sends 70% or more of its dollars to one other state scores low even if a few grants landed in your state. A national funder scores in the middle only when a few percent of its dollars stay in your state. A spread-out funder with almost none scores low. A high in-state share from only a few grants, or from very little money, is pulled toward the middle. One grant, or only two, is pulled toward the middle. About three grants in those three years, about three of them in your state, and a few thousand dollars is enough for that share to count in full. The number of grants in your state counts, not just the dollar share. Grant size fits best when the median award is about 2–10% of your budget. A much smaller local grant is not scored as a poor fit when that funder already sends about 15% or more of its dollars to your state. A grant that is far larger than your budget still scores low. The weights are published — no black box. Higher scores mean a stronger fit.
Beacon is built for small nonprofits that need foundation prospect research but can't afford enterprise tools. If you're an executive director, development director, or grant writer at an organization with a budget under $5M, Beacon is for you.